Print journalism Westervelt's career has been largely devoted to reporting on issues related to the environment and, later, feminism and the economy. As her career went on she found greater intersections among these three topics. From 2006 to 2015, Westervelt wrote on occasion for GreenBiz. In 2009 and 2010, Westervelt contributed to
InsideClimate News. Westervelt covered green technology for
Forbes from 2011 to 2013, writing about companies, regulations and environmental issues. During this time, she published two travel guides: ''Michigan's Upper Peninsula: Great Destinations
(2008) and Explorer's Guide Upper Peninsula (2012)''. Westervelt contributed to
The Guardian from 2014 to 2018. In those years, she was also a co-founder of
Climate Confidential, which published investigative reports on environmental issues from 2014 to 2016.
Podcast network Westervelt founded the podcast network
Critical Frequency, which is home to 14 podcasts including Drilled, a show reported and hosted by Westervelt that digs into
climate change denial. Critical Frequency was a launch partner for Slate's subscription and membership podcast platform Supporting Cast in 2019. Drilled won a 2019
Online News Association Online Journalism Award for excellence in digital audio storytelling. "In the months since its release, Drilled has been downloaded more than a million times; been recommended by The New Yorker, Esquire, and New Scientist; and been quoted on the floor of the U.S. Senate," the award citation reads. In April 2020, Westervelt's Drilled News site launched the Climate & COVID-19 Policy Tracker, an ongoing news feature documenting many climate and energy-related regulation rollbacks and suspensions, fossil fuel lease sales, financial relief offered to the fossil fuel industry, and other related moves taken by the Trump administration as well as some state governments amid the
COVID-19 pandemic. Episodes of Westervelt's podcast
Rigged were published starting in September 2021. Westervelt and Drilled collaborated in 2023 with the
Centre for Climate Reporting on an investigation into "petrostates" and the
2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in the
United Arab Emirates.
Book Westervelt's book on working mothers,
Forget Having It All, was published by
Seal Press (now an imprint of
Basic Books) in 2018. Westervelt wondered "how it was that a culture that superficially holds motherhood in such high esteem could in fact have so little regard for women who have children." Reviewer Rebecca Stoner describes the work as "an intellectual history of American motherhood," writing that Westervelt is "pragmatic in her response, suggesting a policy fix and a cultural fix at the end of each chapter that she thinks could be implemented without 'massive cultural and economic change.'" Stoner describes Westervelt's style as "direct and colloquial," "punctuated by deeply satisfying moments of ire at the demands placed on working mothers." In interviews about the book, Westervelt often talked about her own motherhood and how she found resources in her community and is raising her son. "Having boys babysit is huge. I think letting boys be maternal in different ways too. Like my son, when he was like 4 or 5, really wanted a baby doll, and so many people just squashed that. They were just like, 'No, boys don't have baby dolls,' and I was just like, 'OK. Now we know why men aren't good with babies. Jeez,'" she told
WBUR in 2018. ==Honors and awards==